I'm Here
by LittleChances
Summary: No one every took the time to figure out what Steve saw in his visions under Wanda Maximoff's powers. Because he never spoke about it, it continues to haunt him and mess with his mind. When Natasha notices something off about Steve and decides to get to the bottom of it. She wouldn't have guessed where it leads them.


**Hi guys! So I've pretty much been obsessing over Steve/Natasha or Romanogers or whatever you want to call them ever since I watched The Winter Soldier. I was upset and disappointed over the whole Nat and Hulk thing in Age of Ultron. Anyways I've had a few ideas in my head and if you guys like this one, then maybe I would consider continuing to write more because honestly I just love them together and think they make a whole lot more since then Widow/Hulk. So let me know what you think and enjoy!**

 **Spoilers for Avengers 2: Age of Ultron so if you haven't seen it tread carefully.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.**

* * *

It's been a few weeks since the Avengers managed to take down Ultron. As the world was beinning to recover from all of the damage inflicted during the battle, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were tasked with training the new recruits of the New Avengers team. It was a bit harder than some might imagine but Captain America and Black Widow were up for the challenge because they knew that the world was going to need saving again some day and this team had to be ready.

When they really looked at this new team, Steve and Natasha felt pretty good. They all needed some help in areas but other than that, they were actually doing fairly well. Sam had experience after serving in the military and the whole DC incident. Rhodey was pretty comfortable in the suit by now after battling by Tony's side multiple times. Vision and Maximoff both helped immensely versus Ultron and his drones. They all had areas they could improve and it was up to their leaders to help them.

Currently they were split up and working in hand-to-hand combat. Natasha was working with Wanda, teaching her many basic fighting skills that could potentially save her life one day.

"Come on, Maximoff. You're gonna need to be faster than that. Stay light on your feet. You always have to be ready." Natasha ordered as they were lightly sparring.

"I'm trying." Wanda says, panting.

Natasha was not cruel so she let up a little. "Let's take a break."

Wanda sighed in relief as she walked over to grab a water bottle. As she walked away, Natasha took a good look at her. She had to admit that she was extremely apprehensive in allowing this girl to be part of their team. She was working with Ultron after all. However, Natasha knew the feeling of trying to redeem herself. In the end, the girl chose the right side and that's what matters most.

These past couple of weeks, Natasha has gained a lot of respect for Wanda Maximoff. She was a strong individual, stronger than most. Here she was training only weeks after her twin brother gave his life to save Clint. For that Natasha would always be grateful for the two. She saw that this girl was greiving on the inside, yet here she was training to get better. When Natasha asked her one day if she wanted to take the day off to grieve her twin brother, Wanda had responded by saying she would rather be here trying to keep her mind off things. If she thought of her brother, she felt as if she was going to die inside.

As Wanda was resting up a bit, Natasha looked to the other side of the room to where Steve was fighting all three new recruits at once. She laughed a little to herself remembering how Sam and Rhodey felt that it was an unfair fight when it was one-on-one versus Captain America, so they all decided to team up and attack together.

* * *

Steve was actually have a great time. He was proud to see his recruits working together to try to beat him. He was still holding his own though so that was pretty good. Sam was currently in the air trying to find the right time to strike, while Rhodey was attacking Steve head on. Vision was doing pretty well in aiming for places that Rhodey wasn't focused on, but it still wasn't enough.

Sam was swooping in to attack and Steve was prepared to spin away from it when it happened. All of a sudden, Sam disappeared and was replaced by lights and Steve could faintly hear music playing in the background. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind, and everything changed back as he was able to maneuver out of Sam's way at the last second. He jumped out of the way and was now a few feet from the three.

The next thing Steve saw was Rhodey running at him, readying to punch. As Rhodey came closer, he and everything around him began to morph into a new image. Suddenly Steve was standing in the middle of a dance floor and was surrounded by couples dancing all around him. The music he heard from before was now much louder. Before Steve could even really process what was going on, he felt an extremely hard punch hit him across his jaw. He stumbled back a little and the couples and dance floor were gone.

Again, Captain America shook it off and set his mind back to the fight. He decided to go on the offensive and charged the closest man, who happened to be Rhodey. As he approached, Steve pulled his arm back ready to send the man in the iron suit flying with one of his punches, he suddenly stopped. In front of him was no man but instead a woman.

"Hello, Steve." The woman said, sounding very familiar.

"Peggy?" As soon as the name left the soldier's mouth, he felt a strong kick in the stomach. Steve's eye adjusted and he saw his new teammates facing him. They haven't noticed anything wrong and continued to attack.

Now, Steve was in major trouble. His mind continued to play tricks on him. Every time he was ready to attack, he was transported back to the Stork Club with Peggy who was asking him to dance. The scene would be interrupted as Sam or Rhodey or even Vision managed to hit him. They didn't detect anything wrong, believing that Steve was finally getting tired. He tried to protect himself but it was useless, his mind just could not make up its mind of where it wants to focus. Steve was just taking punch after punch, kick after kick, and was helpless to stop it because his entire body felt like it was starting to shut down on him.

From across the room, Natasha was watching the whole thing go down. She saw that Steve's eyes were glazing over for reasons she didn't know. She knew something was wrong and rushed over. "Stop!" Natasha demanded. "That's enough. We're done for today. You're dismissed."

They were all confused, but the tone in Natasha's voice told them that it was best not to ask questions. They filed out and left the spy and soldier alone.

She made her way over to Steve who was now sitting on the floor, staring at that ground as if he was waiting for it to talk to him.

"Rogers?" No answer. "Cap, are you alright?" Again, nothing. "Steve?"

With no response, Natasha went over and helped him up. She led him over to the bench and sat him down. She knelt down in front of him and began assessing his injuries. A few bruises were beginning to form, he had a busted lip, but other than that he looked fine. Because of the super-soldier serum, she knew that they would heal in no time. That, however, did not stop her from grabbing a close by ice bag and placing it by his jaw where it looked to be the worst. The entire time, Steve never said a word.

Usually they would be cracking jokes at this time. Laughing about all the simple mistakes that the recruits made during training. It didn't matter, because this was the time they used to wind down and just enjoy each other's company. Not today. Something was bothering him and today he didn't need jokes.

She wasn't sure what to do. Still kneeling in front of him, she held his face in her hands and lifted his head until he was looking her in the eyes. "Steve?"

"I'm alone." He whispered so quietly she never would have heard it if she wasn't right in front of him. He put his head back down.

"What are you talking about? I'm right here."

"Nobody cares about me." He said, as if Natasha never spoke.

"That's not true, Steve."

He continued to stare off into space. Natasha was getting worried, something was clearly bothering him but she couldn't help him if she didn't know what it was. She picked his head up again and looked into his eyes, trying to find what was troubling him.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?"

He stayed silent and it kind of surprised her when he actually did speak. "Can I?"

"Of course you can. We trust each other, right?" He nodded. "Then you can just start spewing out your life story and I'll sit here and listen. Tell me anything you want. Ask me anything you want to hear. I just want to help you."

It went quiet again.

"Well that doesn't seem like it's working. I'm gonna ask you questions now and tell me what you want. I'm not going to stop until I get to the bottom of this." She waited until he looked up and gave a slight nod of approval. "Okay then. Why do you feel alone, Steve?"

Steve took a second to contemplate what he was going to say. To him, it felt like he and Natasha were not as close as they were after the fall of SHIELD and that was the only connection he felt like he could hold on to. "I've got a team. We trust each other with our lives, but not with our secrets."

Natasha would admit that she was shocked to hear this, but she also knew that it was true. They all held secrets from one another. None of them could help it, but she never would have expected that this would have affected Steve so much. As she was thinking of everything she kept hidden from him, he spoke again.

"You know how Maximoff messed with all of our minds?" She nodded. "No one ever told me what they saw, but they told other people. It wasn't hard for me to figure it out. You and Bruce told each other. Thor had Dr. Selvig help him. For Christ's sake, even Tony confided in Nick. You know what I knew? I knew that we all saw different things that we didn't particularly like, but it was not my place to go around asking my teammates to tell me what they saw." There was nothing for her to say to that. "You wanna know the worst part?" She looked up at him. "No one ever really asked what I saw."

What surprised her the most was his last statement. "No one?"

"Well, Tony came pretty close. He asked how I was able to escape unharmed. I didn't. I have demons of my own."

"Steve, I'm sorry." Natasha truly was sorry. She knew that out of all her teammates, Steve had the strongest bond with her. She was supposed to be there for him. Be the friend that he needed, and she failed miserably. "Did you want to tell me what you saw?"

"It's not just what I saw. It's what I'm still seeing." He breathed out a long sigh. "I was all dressed up and I was standing in the middle of a dance floor. I'm pretty sure it was the Stork Club. There was music playing, couples dancing. Not this weird modern type of dancing, but real dancing. It was like I was back in the 40's. I walked a little further and there standing in front of me was Peggy. She looked exactly how I remember her before I went into the ice. She said something to me, but before I could understand what it was, I was alone. The club was empty and I was standing all by myself."

They sat there, Steve looking out the window and Natasha staring up at him. This man, their leader, had been hurting but no one took notice. He put on a brave face for everyone.

"Do you miss her?"

"Peggy? Yeah, I do. But I've accepted that my chance with her was over and that I can't go back in time to change it. After being out of the ice for a few years, I thought I had moved on."

"What do you mean?"

"I met this girl that was absolutely beautiful. She was strong, courageous, intelligent. She was a hero in just about every sense of the word, even if she didn't know it. She was just incredible. I didn't know it at the time, but I was falling for her." For the first time today, Steve cracked a smile, albeit a small smile, it was a smile all the same. It didn't last however as the forlorn look returned with his next words. "I waited too long and missed my chance. The next time I saw her, she had her sights set on another man."

Natasha was not an idiot and she was not oblivious to the way that Steve had looked at her when he was describing this mysterious woman. She was the best spy around but it didn't even take those skills for her to figure out that he was talking about her. She felt a connection between the two of them two as they were working together to take down HYDRA.

She couldn't take looking at him anymore because she felt guilty. "Maybe she knew of your feelings and felt that it would have never worked between the two of you."

"Why would she think that?"

"Because. Because you are a caring, independent, brave man, who I believe deserves so much more than what this world can even offer. She probably thought that you deserved better than her and in turn looked for companionship in someone who may be able to better understand all the guilt she feels over her past actions."

This time it was Steve's turn to put his hand under her chin and bring her eyes to his. "I don't care what you had to do in the past. I didn't fall in love with the Black Widow. I fell in love with Natasha Romanoff, the woman who saves people from alien invasions and who I trust with my life."

She turned away from him, stood up and tried walking away, but he didn't let her. He wasn't going to let her get away this time. He reached for her hands and pulled her back to him. They were now standing right up against each other, looking in each other's eyes. "We can't Steve."

"Just give us a chance, Natasha. You left because you didn't think you were good enough, but I say you are. I know Bruce left you for almost the exact same reasons you left me. I'm sorry for that. But look, I'm right here. I've always been right here, waiting for you because no other girl has made an impact on me like you have."

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Rogers."

"I don't care."

And with that, Steve closed the small gap between them and captured her lips with his. Natasha relaxed against him and fully reciprocated as she wound her arms around his neck. The kiss was sweet, but passionate. The kiss they shared on the elevator could not even compare to how this one felt. Natasha felt as if she floating on air for the first time because she could fully let go and allow herself to be consumed by this overbearing love she has for Steve. Steve could not believe that the guy who had almost zero luck when it came to girls, was now kissing the most amazing girl in the world.

Eventually, the pair did have to pull away for air. When they pulled apart, Steve's eyes remained closed as he leaned his forehead against Natasha's. She on the other hand was looking right up at him, biting her lower lip, and wondering how she ever got so lucky.

"So you've been practicing." Natasha teased.

Steve opened his eyes just to roll them at her. "You know how to ruin a perfectly romantic moment."

"I don't know about perfect." He glared at her. She responded by pressing a quick peck to his lips. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."

"So where does this leave us?"

"I got no plans tomorrow night."

He chuckled at her. "That's my line, Nat."

She gave him a small shove. "Whatever, Steve. Are you going to take me out on a date or what?"

"I am definitely taking you on a date."

"Good."

Steve reached down and took Natasha's hand in his. Together they walked out of the gym, not sure what was gonna happen but didn't care. They finally had each other and that is all that matters.


End file.
